Lolita
by justoneyesterday-xo
Summary: Doomed from the start, we can't stay apart — everywhere I turn, I'm trapped in your heart; there's no escape, secrets keep you awake, no running away, no saving the day. Wild and exciting, I'm breaking you down, you're making a comeback, I'm taking your crown — nursery rhymes I'm singing my dreams, I'm lost in the woods and you're baring your teeth. [Set at the end of 1x8]
1. Chapter 1

**N**iklaus **M**ikaelson, vaguely triumphant in regaining the upperhand and overthrowing the vampire community after the violent confrontation in the compound, stood in one of the many bedrooms that spread throughout the Mikaelson's New Orleans mansion, facing toward the wide-space window, a solemn countenance masking his face. In his hands, he wielded the one weapon that was able to disband an Original vampire —next to the white oak stake, of course—, with his index finger sliding along the rugged edge of the thin blade until his thumb was nimbly pressing at the pointy tip, a whirlwind of thoughts bombarded and consumed him; the late afternoon light reflected off the dagger, his hand paling a shade whiter under the sun's rays. Despite the perfected stone expression, he was inflicted with one of the worst pains imaginable; the agonizing torture that constricted his heart was practically comparable to the three-way abuse he'd received from his step father during his adolescent years while his siblings stood by idly, for fear that the wrath brought down upon Klaus would be far more unbearable than anyone could possibly think. The familiar sound of someone's high heeled boots tapping against the polished high gloss wooden floors brought him from being wrapped up in his thoughts, and he immediately knew who'd entered, the person in question remained silent until the clacking of their shoes stopped midway into the parlor room where she'd luckily found him hiding out, just in time because, his patience had slowly begun to wear thin. And he wanted to get _it _out of the way

Klaus firmly pressed his index finger and thumb against the tip of the dagger's blade, but no incision was made against his skin. "Elijah's home, there's only one dagger. . . which one of us will you be punishing today?" The tiniest of smiles started at the corners of Klaus' lips at the sound of his younger sister's voice as it broke the brooding silence that had once filled the room, but he stopped himself just in time, keeping his back to be facing the window.

"I contemplated a game of eenie-meenie-miney-moe." Slowly, his face turned so he was capable of looking over at his younger sister — in a sixteenth of a second, Klaus had flashed at an impeccable speed from his post to standing behind **R**ebekah **M**ikaelson, the youngest out of all the Original Siblings and the only sister out of many brother, with one arm locked around her neck, his other using the dagger to be pointed just directly at the arc of her chin. "You betrayed me, my own sister!" He seethed, feeling his sister's body posture tense in a crippling fear that would normally paralyze her, if it weren't for the sound of a fresh pair of shoes swiftly fleeing from the foyer to where Klaus and Rebekah were.

"Niklaus, don't you dare." The familiar voice declared in a voice that was anything but challenging.

Upon hearing the elder, Klaus turned away from Rebekah in that same instant that **E**lijah **M**ikaelson had announced his arrival, his arm spinning Rebekah in time with his body as they both faced their brother. "Perhaps it should be you," Klaus' arm extended out, the dagger's tip pointed toward the dark-haired original vampire, "brother," Rebekah retreated away from her menacing older brother, while he stepped backwards while still looking at his siblings. With every step that Klaus took, Elijah matched with moving toward him. "Stealing my child away with every fawning moment of tenderness you showed to Hayley!" His strong demeanor, his façade, was seconds away from crumbling, but he held on as long as he could.

"This has _nothing_ to do with Hayley." Elijah proclaimed evenly, his tone was stern yet peaceful, and it allowed his younger brother to know that he was not there for anything but.

"It has _everything _to do with her!" Klaus' voice rose, notes of anger slipping in and out like a fading image, with the dagger pointed more sharply at Elijah, slowly stepping toward the brunette and the blonde. Replacing what once fueled the original hybrid hatred was now ignited with a softening expression of pure pain, the flicker in his blue eyes was hardly recognizable to anyone — but after a thousand years of standing together in their time as both humans and vampires, Elijah knew as well as Rebekah did, while the dagger was briefly lowered, just like Klaus' voice had done. "She's adored you since she arrived. . . and now **my **child, _my _blood, will grow up to call you father!"   


A flicker of hurt flashed in his eyes, and it was not something that could be passed without acknowledgement.

Elijah stared at his brother in awe, his lips parted as if he were to say something, except words had explicitly died in his throat, and it was Rebekah who had been the one to step forward in voicing herself against her brother's silence, "Is that what this is? You are once again worried that you will be left behind." The dagger raised once more in Klaus' hand, this time angled in his sister's direction, his lips mashed together into a line of defiance. "Has history taught you nothing? We don't _abandon _you, Nik, you drive us away!"

His arm fell limply at his side, but his fingers latched firmly around the handle of the dagger. "Is that so?" Klaus inquired with an unnamed emotion wrapped around his words, his eyes glistening the longer he stared at the two of them. "What have I done lately, other than cooperate?" A fresh batch of hot, salty tears welled in the crease lining of his eyelids, causing him to begin blinking rapidly to fight them back; his arm raising to point the dagger at the Original siblings for the third or fourth time, wagging it in a slight motion toward his older brother, his heart clenching with the ache of the hurting vulnerability as a tear slid down his cheek. "I bow down to you, brother, to make up for daggering you. For the greater good of our plan to reclaim our home. . . Looking the other way, sister—" His eyes fixed on Rebekah, gesturing toward her with the dagger now, "while you repeat the same cycle with Marcel, falling _again _for a man that you shouldn't be with, while he controls the empire that _we _built, that _he_ took!"

The riling of his buried emotions rose to its highest peak in a surging flare that engorged the heated anger that brought the tears to come pouring faster down Klaus' face, unable to contain himself, unable to stopping himself from the feeling of betrayal that concurred everything, it was what ignited those locked emotions to become a live wire. "Now, I make no excuses for past sins but in the one moment when you two could have chosen to stand by me — to believe in me, to believe my intentions for my own child were pure. . . you chose to stand against me," His eyes flickered between Elijah and Rebekah, who were either at a loss for words or just simply did not want to interrupt their brother. The tears had stopped, creating wet spots against his pale skin, damp on the soft tissue that was the orbitals of underneath his eyes. It was evident that Klaus was astonished by their decision, and it had wounded him more than anything. "to side with my enemies."

While the other two Originals remained silent under Klaus' assertion, frozen where they stood, Klaus slowly began to close the gap between him and his siblings until he came face-to-face with Elijah, his grip slowly loosening around the dagger handle, his face contorted into another mask to conceal himself once more, the emotions dissolving back to being buried deep inside, the anger resurfacing and flaring in a soft simmer in his eyes, but not before one final tear slipped its way along the hybrid's prominent cheekbone and dripped off his face, onto his black shirt. "I wanted our home back; now I have it. So I'm going to live there, and the two of you—" Klaus held the dagger up one last time, gesturing between his siblings, before pointing it at the arc of Elijah's chin, "can stay here together . . . _and rot_." Having nothing more to say to either of them, Klaus flipped the weapon in his palm and transferred the dagger to Elijah, who accepted it reluctantly, as if he was allegedly testing his younger brother, his mouth still slightly ajar. A soft breath was the only sound he made as he wrapped his fingers around the dagger, taking full possession of it.

Without so much as a second glance toward Elijah and Rebekah, Klaus fled from the second story of the Mikaelson's mansion, swiftly pulling back the right navy blue door and having it slam in his wake as he exited the house for the final time, his steps driven by the sufficient rage and exasperation, where he found Hayley sitting on the brick steps, patiently waiting with her hand resting under her chin. "You're coming with me, little wolf." He demanded, descending from the few steps and onto the gravel drive.

"Why would I go anywhere with you?" **H**ayley **M**arshall inquired, not bothering to disguise the disgust in her voice, with an eyebrow artfully raising at the man who could physically raise hell on earth, dropping her hand to be resting in her lap, dangling off the side of her thigh.

He stopped in his tracks for a moment, standing halfway between the house and his vehicle, but still having slight movement in his footwork as he faced the werewolf. "Because, _Hayley_, that child you carry is the only thing on this earth that matters to me," his food slid an eighth of an inch, motioning toward her. "Now you can fight me on this, but you will lose—" he returned to walking toward the car, grabbing at the handle and pulling the passenger door open, an unknown flicker of emotion danced in his callous eyes when he looked over at her, Klaus gestured for her to accompany him, making it clear that she did not have a choice in the matter, "as will anyone else who tries to stop you getting in this car."

Hayley stared at the father of her child in disbelief for a moment, listening to the sharp edge of his challenging voice, before looking over her shoulder at the house she had called home for the time that the Originals wanted her to remain unseen, to remain hidden away from Marcel and his band of vampires. It was clear that Hayley understood Klaus was definitely referring to the object of her affection, his brother. And the thought alone of what Klaus was capable of doing, of what would happen to Elijah because Hayley did not feel safe in bringing the two of them going head-to-head because of her, after knowing what had happened when the elder vampire had let himself love Celeste Duboise back when they first settled in New Orleans, it had only been a second of dwell in her thoughts before she rose to her feet, obeying Klaus' order to get into the SUV, having the door slammed after her and immediately being joined by her unwanted partner.

In that single sustained moment, a beat of a heart, it was the marking of change. Something greater than anyone was prepared for.

Especially the two unlikely parents.

* * *

**Writers block, you little shit. It's stopped me from updating Belong. And everything else that's been put on hold. **

**But I am in love with the one scene from River in Reverse between the Mikaelson siblings, and I wanted to use that as a start for something I'm longing for in The Originals: **_closure between Hayley and Klaus, bonding over the undeniable love they share for their unborn daughter_.** This will only be two chapters, maybe three, depending on how much I decide to put into the next chapter.**

**Disclaimer — the characters are not mine. I own nothing, unfortunately. All rights go to The CW and the writers of The Originals/TVD.**


	2. Chapter 2

It was well half passed midnight when Niklaus had finally emerged from behind captivity, holing himself away from the rest of the compound while he gathered himself from recent events — namely, abandoning his siblings because they had not been there in the time that he needed them most, and thought he was capable of counting on them. The Abattoir was eerily silent, but he found it strangely comforting as he wandered the narrow, expertly-decorated halls in search of something that might ease his jumbling of nerves: he was to gather all the vampires in the upcoming morning, propose a toast to their immortal life, and rid their fear that Klaus' intentions for his child were that he was going to use his daughter's blood in order to create more hybrids. But didn't anyone understand that he no longer had use for the near-extinct breed? Why would he need them, when he was going to have a child? Creating hybrids hadn't been a priority of his since before the massacre he'd completed in the expression triangle — for Hayley, none the less, after he found out that they were no longer sired to him. Klaus found it impossible to gain any sleep, he couldn't remember the last time he'd actually got some shut-eye. While he traipsed through the Abattoir, he found himself thinking back to the earlier conversation with his brother and sister at the mansion, his hands immediately curling into a tight fist, and his jaw becoming taut with clenched teeth.

_This has _nothing_ to do with Hayley_. _This has _everything_ to do with her! Is that what this is, y__ou are once again worried that you will be left behind_.

**Nik, you drive us away**.

The words circled in his mind on a constant loop, the racing of his blood pushing thickly through his veins reminded him of the adrenaline rush he'd experienced when Marcel had tried to capture Niklaus in the rumble, and force him an eternity in The Garden where Marcel's right-hand, cap-wearing friend, Thierry Vanchure, currently resided under false pretenses on Klaus' command and warped truth reasoning. _She's adored you since she's arrived _. . . _and now **my** child,_ my _blood, will grow up to call you father_. That was what his initial fear was, but would anyone truly know the undermining of this? Klaus stumbled his way into one of the parlors, swiping up a bottle of whiskey and spinning the cap off with his thumb, his thoughts wafting toward the way he hadn't given a damn about his and Hayley's baby when the news had been first sprung. The witches had used this knowledge against him, threatening the life of Hayley in the baby in blackmail, in order to create some kind of fucked up alliance so they could remove Marcel as 'King of the Quarter', and get control back for themselves, Klaus had retaliated by saying that he did not care if Hayley and the baby were killed — it had been Elijah (and Cami) who'd really given him a change of heart, _every king needs an heir_, he had said to Elijah during their talk, only to have that thrown in his face a few days ago. It was Tyler Lockwood, that bloody orphan that was a sad excuse for one of his hybrids, who had made this all happen; Tyler had been the reason behind not having his siblings stand by his side, that they believed he would use his child's blood in order to create another race of hybrids since they were dying out. But little did they know, as Klaus brought the whiskey to his lips and took a long swig of the butterscotch-colored alcohol, he truly and deeply cared for his daughter, and for Hayley, more than he would ever let on. Klaus stared at the crackling flames that burned in the fireplace, he began to remember how Elijah believed that the baby was the key in reuniting the Mikaelson family, and yet — he was under the false impression of Klaus' intentions for his child, doubting Klaus, thinking the _worst_ of his younger brother. Out of everyone, it was Elijah who'd held onto the faith, who thought Klaus could still be redeemed by this child.

And it worked. . . Klaus would love his child unconditionally, and protect her until the end of time.

"What are you doing up?" a soft voice inquired.

Klaus craned his neck, lowering the bottle from his lips as his eyes fell upon his child's mother, who was cradling one hand against her protruding stomach. He swallowed the whiskey that had collected in his mouth, and licked his lips. "Couldn't sleep... But I could ask you the same thing." His dark blue eyes flickered to where the clock hung on the wall, the second hand ticked another minute passing, making it 1:07 AM. When he'd returned his attention back to Hayley, she had made herself to sitting curled up on one of the lounge couches, her legs hugged close tucked under her enlarging frame, resting both hands on her stomach, her eyes locked on Klaus.

"It's nearly impossible to sleep with this little bouncer." She replied with what Klaus assumed was a half-hearty laugh, a slow once-shake of her head.

"How are you feeling, love?" He wondered aloud, placing the bottle of whiskey on the fire mantle as he turned to fully face Hayley.

A look of disgust flashed on her face, and Klaus all but flinched — feeling as if he'd just been slapped across the face, but Hayley only sat there, unfazed by the wounded flicker in his eyes. They stared at each other for a moment, letting the unspoken words flow in the silence, and her expression immediately softened, realizing just how much that had actually hurt him. Klaus was misunderstood, Hayley knew. But did she really think that he did not give a damn about her? About the baby? Klaus had even told her that the baby's the only thing on this earth that mattered to him now, not too many hours ago, in fact. Just looking at Hayley, it made him want to smile — never in his life, had he expected to be fathering a baby, and even though she was conceived out of a drunken one night stand back in Mystic Falls, Klaus had been thrilled once overcoming and realizing what greatness would be coming out of having the baby. He had smiled when Hayley told him that she thought the baby was going to be a girl. His thoughts flitted to the day prior to finding out the sex of the baby, when Hayley had been in danger, going out into the Quarter and facing up against some of Marcel's vampires, and he'd berated her for trying to kill their child to put it out of its misery, Klaus had snapped and proceeded in choking her until Rebekah pulled him off, scolding him for his irrational behavior.

The following morning, Klaus had a chat with Hayley after finding the empty bottle of wolfsbane, where she claimed that she hadn't used it, and when he asked her why she hadn't gone through with any of it, she had told him that fighting for both of their lives had reminded her of being abandoned by her adoptive parents, and not knowing what a real family was like, it had struck something inside of her that she would never let anything happen to her daughter. Klaus' memories of Mikael served in relation, knowing how much his step-father hated him since he was born, and taunted him days on end, abusively; the last thing he wanted was for himself to grow up in Mikael's image, and make his child live in fear for it's entire existence, not knowing what it was like to be loved, and to always be afraid that no one would love him, that he would never be good enough. In the end, Klaus had told Hayley that they were alike, that they're both cast-offs who have learned to fight when they're backed into a corner, in which she replied that they were "backed into a corner now" — the final words from Klaus had been, "_it's time to fight, little wolf_."

"Why do you treat me with such hostility, little wolf?" Klaus knew that he was _far _from innocent, and that he was nowhere near the victim, but he couldn't help but berate his curiosity. Not too long ago, he had asked her what drew her to admiration to his older brother, which was only the start of his fear that he would lose his child to Elijah, and she had responded simply by telling him that it was because Elijah was kind to her. Klaus had his moments where he showed that he cared about her, notably the fact that he told her that he got her the night she'd been held hostage by Agnes, but unbeknownst to her, he'd meant it in more ways than just carrying her into the mansion. He'd willingly helped find Hayley after she'd been kidnapped by Tyler, Sabine hadn't needed to ask for a sample of his blood, he bit into his wrist and let his blood drip for the communicator spell.

"You aren't _seriously _asking me that?" She snapped, narrowing her hazel green eyes at the hybrid; Klaus could hear in her tone that she_ still_ believed he was nothing but a liar, manipulator, and a bastard. Of course, he'd justified that by biting Elijah when they'd been in the bayou after the whole confrontation with Tyler Lockwood.

"I've shown you nothing but kindness, Hayley, since you've been here, and I—"

"You only give a _damn _because I am pregnant with your child," Hayley spat.

"How _dare_ you say that to me!" Klaus replied angrily, his voice raising higher than he'd expected it to. Instantly, Hayley pushed herself off the couch so she could stand up against him, showing that she was not afraid of him, for she knew that he would not hurt her, or even lay a hand on her, because of the child that she was baring.

"_Kill her and the baby, see what I care_." Hayley recited, doing her best impression of the original hybrid, glowering up at him.

"That was before, little wolf." He shook his head exasperatingly, letting out a heavy sigh afterward, resting one hand on her shoulder, but she immediately flinched away from him, an alarming look in her eyes told him that she was prepared to give him a harsh slap across the face if he touched her again. Klaus immediately ignored that warning, but did not take any chance, knowing he should not piss off a pregnant woman.

"Before what?" She hissed through her teeth.

"Do you not remember **anything** of this _entire _time you've been in New Orleans, Hayley?" Klaus almost growled, his hands clenching into fists at his sides.

"If I remember _correctly_, Klaus Mikaelson, you have only shown kindness toward me since I got pregnant with this baby." She replied vehemently, her hand gripping at her stomach the more rage she felt surging. Klaus immediately rolled his eyes; did her memory not serve in his protection when Katherine Pierce had sent someone after her? He had spent the day with her, none the less — bringing on the conceiving of their child. "How can I even be sure that you want this baby for anything but yourself? Tyler said—"

"_Why_ would you believe a_ word_ that comes from Tyler Lockwood's shameful mouth, little wolf?" He cut her off abruptly, his breathing gradually becoming heavier. "The intentions for my child are pure, just as I've told my siblings. I would never bring _any_ harm to our child, the fact that—"

"So you don't want to create more hybrids?" Hayley accusingly raised an eyebrow.

"No." He replied lowly, letting his gaze lock with hers intensely.

"_I don't believe you_." Hayley tossed out coolly, breaking their eye contact, and swiftly turning to march out the parlor.

Klaus was quick to grab gently at her elbow, slowly pulling her back toward him, and nervously licking his lips, swinging Hayley around so they could look at each other again. He knew that under the circumstances, it _was _nearly impossible to understand that Klaus truly cared for her and the child, given the way they had unintentionally met back in Mystic Falls after that vampire hunter had blown his way through town; Klaus had been called back in for the protection of Tyler by his mother, how ironic, and Hayley had been a friend to Tyler from when he'd broken the hybrid's sire bond. It all wrapped up quite nicely, sarcastically speaking, of course. Where he'd been led to assume that something had gone on between the two of them, causing the break up between Caroline and Tyler, for a time being, before the slaughtering of his hybrids. Rebekah had said that Klaus only made his hybrids because he was afraid to be alone, that he would have them as family, unlike his own siblings, before his brother Kol had been used as a gateway for Jeremy Gilbert completing the Hunter's Mark. Back then, it was true. But he'd lost complete interest in his hybrids a long time ago. He had no use for them. Not when there was a chance for the family to come together again, and have his daughter to look after, to take care of, to love for eternity.

"I had no idea that my child's blood could create hybrids," he told her softly, truthfully.

"Then how could Tyler figure it out?" Hayley questioned, and received only a shrug from Klaus. He dropped his hand from her elbow, and instead of running off out of the parlor like she'd initially planned, she had returned to sitting down on the couch, bringing her legs up and tucking them beneath her, rubbing at her stomach, staring up at him. "Why do you want this child, Klaus?"

"All I've wanted, was a family. That's all anyone wants, Hayley. You would know." He took a seat next to her, draping his arm across the back of the couch. "Back when my family was complete, I wanted our family to be as we were, but that was near impossible, especially after finding out that my mother wanted all of us dead because we were considered _abominations_. . . just like my father thought of me as." A slight shudder rippled through Klaus, and he swallowed thickly, blinking a few times as he relaxed against the couch, keeping his eyes trained on Hayley. "My hybrids were used as a surrogacy of creating an extended family, if you wish to call it, because my siblings were unreliable, whereas I wished to bring my family together time and time again, just like Elijah tries to do with us remaining Originals."

Hayley sat rigid at his side, but didn't stop looking at him, intrigued and not wanting to interrupt.

"This child, _our _child. . . I— Hayley, do you know why I act the way that I do?" He inquired softly, letting his hand slide to being resting on her shoulder, expecting her to move and slap his hand away, or better yet, her hand colliding with his face like she'd been ready to do before.

"Because you are a pompous ass?" Hayley replied with a tiny smile, only part of her was half joking with him.

"My ego... my paranoia... all of my anger..." he started out in a slow breath, "it's all a result of feeling like I've been failed, this _family_ has failed me, and that _I_ have failed them. Elijah shared with you what happened to me during my adolescent years, that my father hated me, couldn't stand my existence, thought of me as an abomination, I wasn't good for anything, I shouldn't believe, et cetra—"

"Your father was a dick." Hayley echoed her opinion on Mikael when she'd first learned about him through her talk with Elijah the first night the Original vampires were in New Orleans. "Klaus, why do you _really _want this baby?"

Klaus cracked a smile, nodding in agreement, and then it ultimately fell when her question slipped up. Instantly, he thought about his talk with Elijah when they had first arrived upon hearing that the witches were allegedly plotting against him, and he slowly, softly bit down on his lower lip. "All I've ever wanted was family, Hayley. I thought I've made that pretty clear."

She nodded once, but didn't look entirely enthused, or even convinced by Klaus' choice of wording this entire night. Neither of them said anything, while Elijah's words swirled around in Klaus' head from that one night that sparked everything; _It's our chance._ T_o start over. Take back everything we lost, everything that was taken from us — Niklaus, our own parents came to despise us. Our family was ruined, we were ruined. And since then, all that you have ever wanted — all that we have ever wanted, was a family_. How right his brother had been, and he had not wanted to be manipulated by the witches of New Orleans, but his brother had spoken within reason, like the gentleman that he was known to be throughout history. Klaus had not wanted that child because he did not know what would come out of the entire situation, all he wanted was power, and how right, once again, Elijah had been when he'd responded with the fact of family being power.

"Little wolf... Hayley, what I desire most in this world, is very simple: Love, loyalty, and family. It's all I've wanted for the better part of a thousand years. Justifying that I love my child, and I will always love my child. I am guaranteed what I want, with our daughter. Now I know that probably makes me sound like a complete ass, and—"

"Listen, Klaus. I understand what you're telling me, you're getting me to believe that you won't hurt our baby, and I understand that you're just _alone_. Which is why you couldn't walk away from me, or the baby, or your siblings. You push people away, those closest to you, use your hybrids as a scapegoat, because you are afraid that no one is going to love you. Mikael instilled that while you were growing up." Hayley spoke sincerely, her voice genuinely showing that she understood what he had been trying to tell her all night, even though most of his words kept sounding jumbled to her, and he was talking in absolute circles, but she was good at comprehending. . . especially when it came down to being alone. She had been alone, too, all of her life. She felt what he did, she knew that pain, that suffering, and the uncanny ability of casting away happiness when given a chance to embrace it.

Klaus stared at her, bewildered. As much as he hated it, his thoughts immediately went back to what Caroline had told him the night of the Mikaelson's ball, when the siblings had been reunited before the untimely death of Finn and Kol, when Klaus was under the impression that his mother had forgiven him for killing her back in the tenth century, and that she wanted to bring their family together just as much as he had. _I get it. Your father didn't love you, so you assume that no one else will either — and that's why you compel people, or you sire them, or you try to buy them off. But that's not how it works; you don't connect with people, because you don't even try to understand them_.

"Well, you just might be right, little wolf." He muttered just low enough for her to hear.

"Great things will come out of this baby, despite what anyone says, especially those damn witches." Hayley quipped with a smile, surprising Klaus by the way she'd finally loosened herself up and relaxed into his side, resting one hand in between them on the couch, and the other on her baby bump, her head sort of hitting against his arm or shoulder, staring absently around the parlor. "Klaus? Why d—"

"I know what you're about to ask, Hayley." He chuckled softly, almost darkly under his breath. He'd been expecting this, it was evident from the beginning that this particular question would be brought up eventually, it was only a matter of time before Hayley brought it up, whether it was now, or later on sometime before, or even after, the baby was born. "It's about Elijah, isn't it?" She didn't respond verbally, but Klaus felt her nod her head against his arm. "You adore my brother and he fawns over you, it's clear to the human eye, and then some.. but I have been so alone in this world, that the last thing I want, is for _my _daughter to be calling _my _brother something that he isn't — her father."

"Why are you so sure that's going to happen, Old One?" She asked, and he almost chuckled at the short nickname she'd referred to him as when they'd first met after she arrived at Tyler's mansion.

"I just know," he replied hesitantly, slipping his arm to being fully draped around Hayley's shoulders, hugging her closer against his side, her head moved to being rested on his chest, nuzzling against him comfortingly, humming softly to herself in what Klaus presumed to be delight.

Neither of them said anything after that, they just stared around the parlor in silence. Klaus swallowed thickly, the tiniest of smiles forming on his lips, as he held Hayley with one arm, cradling her pregnant body against his; cautiously resting his hand on her stomach on top of hers, his spine tickling in anticipation when her thumb brushed against part of his hand underneath. It was unclear of what the future would bring, but at least they had been brought down to some kind of understanding, and he was no longer considered a lying, manipulative bastard that did not care for his unborn daughter under the pretense of Tyler Lockwood's false accusation against him. He was just someone that was tired of being lonely, wanting a family meant the world to him, and his daughter would be the one thing that would keep Klaus grounded, in touch with the shred of humanity that was left from centuries of torment, the redemption that Elijah was looking for from the start.

"I love our daughter," Hayley whispered into Klaus' chest. And he knew that, too. Hayley had said she was no longer fighting for her life, but for their daughter's, and she would do anything to protect her, just like Klaus vowed that he would. He loved their daughter, and his heart stuttered a hollow sustained beat when she'd said _our_. Klaus would go to the end of the earth for her, both Hayley and the baby, if it were the last thing that he would do. Everything was just misunderstanding, _they _were misunderstood from the beginning. But some things just cleared up gradually over time.

However, it didn't mean that his fear was gone. Things were just clarified for the time being.

Time, was unclear. How long had passed? Klaus did not know, the clock was too far away for him to read. But under it all, it had finally caused Hayley to collapse into a slumber, curled up against him, snoring softly under her breath and oblivious to the world around her. Klaus didn't bother to stop the smile that threatened, carefully pushing himself off the couch and bringing the unconscious pregnant werewolf into his arms, conveying her to his bedroom instead of her own, and laying her on his bed, dragging the blanket up to cover her, watching as she made herself subconsciously comfortable in Klaus' bed; but he did not stay, he _still_ was not tired, and didn't see himself going to sleep any time soon.

Roaming the halls, once more, with a certain weight lifted off his chest, even though the future was uncertain, but right now, that didn't matter.

He was on the road to getting _everything_ that he wanted, and that made him triumphant, to confide in himself that there was no reason to doubt or fear.

* * *

**Author's Note: Okay, I felt like I was talking in circles throughout this entire chapter, and I pictured this A LOT better in my head. **

**Hopefully I can one day come up with something better, but since this was so early in the series, I couldn't do what I initially wanted to write out, but because I loved the one scene between the siblings from River in Reverse, I stuck with that specific time span. **

**Disclaimer is the same as the previous chapter. Copyright goes to The CW for their characters and certain dialogue used in the context. **


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